Preparation and thermal studies of self-crosslinked terpolymer derived from 4-acetylpyridine oxime, formaldehyde and acetophenone

Terpolymer (4-APOFA) has been synthesized using the monomer 4-acetylpyridine oxime, formaldehyde and acetophenone in 1:5:1 molar proportion. The structure of 4-APOFA terpolymer has been elucidated based on various physicochemical techniques, i.e., FT-IR, 1H NMR, Pyrolyis GC/MS and viscosity average molecular weight. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and thermal stability of terpolymer have been determined by DSC. The activation energy of the thermal reaction has been determined with differential scanning calorimetry using Kissinger method. The apparent activation energies (Ea) of each step during thermodegradation have been determined using Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method. The type of solid-state mechanism has been established by Craido method. From the calculation, the solid-state thermal mechanism is proposed to be D3 (three-dimensional diffusion) at initial decomposition state and F1 (random nucleation with one nucleus on the individual particle) at second decomposition state for 4-APOFA. It has also been shown to possess excellent antimicrobial activities as compared to other cationic resins.